Crude oil processing in India has witnessed a double-digit growth of 14% y-o-y in Oct’21, indicating a steady performance from the petroleum refineries.
Indian domestic refineries processed 20.96 million tonnes (mn t) of crude oil in Oct’21, as against 18.39 mn t in Oct’20. Moreover, crude processing in Oct’21 was higher by 15.1% on m-o-m basis.
Meanwhile, the total crude oil processed by Indian refineries in FY’21 was 221.8 mnt, compared with 254.4 mn t in FY’20, resulting in a drop of 13% due to Covid-19.
Notably, the total crude oil processing capacity in India stood at 250 mn t as on 1 Apr’20.
Month-wise crude oil processing for FY’22, FY’21 and FY’20:
(Source: Govt data; data has been updated as in Govt reports)
On a cumulative basis, the crude processed in Apr-Oct’21 is recorded at 134.25 mn t, as against 118.56 mn t in the corresponding period last year, registering a growth of 13.2%.
Crude processing demonstrated negative growth at the beginning of FY’21, especially in Apr’20, due to stringent lockdown measures imposed by the government to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. In subsequent months, the growth moderated.
In recent months, there has been consistent recovery in crude processing but it still falls short as compared to pre-Covid levels.
Crude oil processing in Oct’21 is lower by 4.4% as compared to Oct’19. Also, the cumulative crude oil processing for Apr-Oct’21 is lower by 9.1% as compared to Apr-Oct’19.
It is expected that despite the present trend of recovery, it may take some more months for crude processing to reach pre-Covid levels on a monthly basis, particularly as the peak season starts from June.
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